The Oregon State Advantage Accelerator is not just an accelerator. We are not an incubator. We are a hybrid—a combination of both at the same time. Both accelerators and incubators provide important services, education and community to entrepreneurs. The major differences between the two is that incubators tend to provide office space and companies can stay there much longer than the typical three month accelerator stay. University research takes a significant investment of time, money and grit. Everyone dreams of the overnight success, but in fact original research takes years of hard work and persistence.
Working with our aspiring entrepreneurs—particularly those in the very early stages—requires patience. We must introduce key business components and enlighten scientists to the commercialization process. This is critical because almost all grants (federal, state or private) now require a commercialization plan that is focused on market-based application. Grant acceptance is determined by the marketability of the research.
We also accept later stage companies. These businesses are taken back to the beginning, to their roots. All clients must make certain that each opportunity is examined thoroughly. An opportunity has the qualities of being attractive, durable, and timely and is anchored in a product or service, which creates or adds value for its buyer or end user.
Opportunity is the basis for the company’s existence. At the OSU Advantage Accelerator, we have our entrepreneurs scrutinize as many possible opportunities as possible. With each potential opportunity we consider a number of variables, and for each variable we examine one set of opportunities for the business aspect and another for the technology itself.
For the business aspects, each opportunity is compared to:
Total market, addressable and reachable
The major benefits for each opportunity
Ease of entry
Cost of entry
Adoption rate and ease of customer reach
Key drivers of change
Channels, both physical and digital
Intellectual property or other market protection
Competitive response
Price/margins (price re-frames customers)
Potential early adopters
Strategic partners
Application platform, early features leading to a minimal viable product
Unique Value Proposition (What really does make you so special?)
List the unknowns, questions to explore, and the decision making process for the targeted customer in each opportunity.
On the technology side, the focus remains on commercialization but seeks the answer to other important questions:
Is the inventor or good substitute readily available to join the team?
What is the amount of the pain for our solution?
How far along is the technology? Is it prototype ready?
What are customers doing now? Are there other substitutes?
What is the industry’s infrastructure?
What is the regulatory environment?
Going back to the beginning helps to cut down on pivots during and after working through a business model canvas exercise. A pivot is a substantive change to one or more of the nine business model canvas components. Pivots may cost money.
Not pivoting when appropriate may also cost the business. Going through an opportunity recognition exercise before working on a business model canvas saves time and money. Is it possible to choose the better option earlier on? I know it is and our clients at the Advantage Accelerator know it as well.
We teach our clients to follow the three D rule: Be Daring, be Different and be Delightful (More on the three D’s in a future post). Test the opportunities as well as the nine elements of the canvas and the answers to each hypothesis will be found. These answers will eliminate and/or reduce the pivots when starting the new great entrepreneurial venture.